（Interviewee）Mr. Tomohiro Okada, CEO, KAERU, Inc
Please share what prompted your company to apply for the Tokyo Financial Award.We were recommended to apply for the Tokyo Financial Award via a social networking site of our acquaintances as well as by the community owned by venture capitalists and the companies that support them. They suggested that the Tokyo Financial Award would be the perfect program for us since we are operating a FinTech business in Tokyo.
We often work with governments and feel that startups lack credibility and recognition. Since the Tokyo Financial Award is a program organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, we considered that winning the Tokyo Financial Award would be an effective means of expanding our business and services. In addition, the prize money of 10 million yen was attractive to us since we startups inevitably have limited cash.
What do you think makes Tokyo a successful financial hub?As a company that's developing its business around Japan being its primary client base, we can't understate how significant it is to have Tokyo, our capital city, channeling resources into fintech companies and startups. The experience we get from starting new business endeavors in Tokyo has been extremely useful when expanding to other regions of Japan, and we are grateful for that.
Have any substantial achievements come to fruition from leveraging the opportunities for collaboration and business matching facilitated by the government's support?Yes, they have, and we are currently engaged in discussions for even further collaboration. We have also been expanding our business opportunities with the help from the members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and not only the members involved in the award program.
What kind of reaction have you seen both inside and outside your company after being awarded the Tokyo Financial Award?We, as a startup, do not often receive much attention, and our development and planning team members work while grappling with concerns as to whether our business is really needed by society. Winning this award has brought light to what we have achieved to date and fostered momentum for our company.
We have received many responses from outside the company congratulating us on the award. We have also received inquiries about our services from those who heard the news about our winning the award. The Tokyo Financial Award has helped us build trust and facilitate communication with our customers.
How do you plan to deliver your proposed services and expand your business beyond Tokyo in the future?With the proposal of our service that can support long distance nursing care, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has introduced us to members of the Council of Social Welfare whom we are currently communicating with. While some people in nursing care receive support to manage their finances privately, there are some cases where organizations like ours step in to provide support in collaboration with local governments. We are hoping to succeed in Tokyo first and then expand to other regions of the country.
After all, regions other than Tokyo will observe what is happening in Tokyo and try to follow. In this sense, getting our hands on the chance to succeed in Tokyo is a major opportunity for us.
What aspects make the Tokyo Financial Award stand unique?The Tokyo Financial Award attracts attention from many financial professionals, and thus enables startups to gain the recognition and credibility that they lack, which is one of the advantages of the Tokyo Financial Award program.
Is there anything you would like to say to companies that are considering applying for the Tokyo Financial Award?We would strongly encourage those companies to apply. To be honest, many startups are concerned about taking part in these sorts of awards or startup accelerators. This is because these programs can quite frequently be unsuccessful, despite taking up to six months of the company’s time. Before applying, we usually consider how effective the program would be and how much resources we would have to dedicate to it. It is hard to see what the future will be at startups, even if that future is only one month or three months ahead, making it more difficult to gauge how busy you will be kept at that time. Many startups are concerned about applying for programs that are hard to opt out of once applied to. What is great about the Tokyo Financial Award is that it has a very established program, is startup-oriented, and does not require many resources to participate in. As mentioned before, startups need a lot of time to obtain recognition and trust from the public. Being able to acquire both of these important qualities by applying to the Tokyo Financial Award was extremely meaningful and gave our team members a lot of momentum.
Additionally, receiving the award will help spread your name to many governments and companies, especially in Tokyo, which makes applying a no-brainer for fintech companies.
FY2022 Tokyo Financial Award - Financial Innovation Category, 1st Place
▼Theme : New financial services to prepare for “the 100-year life”
▼Summary of Solution : A prepaid card for elderly customers with dementia.
Includes services such as family monitoring (remote tracking of usage history, balance top-up etc.) and service suspension in case of card loss.
Contributes to reducing the burden on caregivers, promotes financial inclusion for the elderly and provides the ease of cashless payment.
▼KAERU, Inc
HP：https://kaeru-inc.co.jp/
Interview Video
（Interviewee）Mr. Tsubasa Hotta, Head of APAC, Tractable Ltd.
Please share what prompted your company to apply for the Tokyo Financial Award.With the recruiting process being so critical to startups, our primary purpose was to gain wider recognition beyond our industry in order to improve our capabilities to find talented candidates.
What do you think makes Tokyo a successful financial hub?One of the most appealing aspects of Tokyo is its concentration of leading Japanese companies. In recent years, remote work and diverse work styles are becoming the norm. At the same time, however, discussions in person are also important for generating new ideas and discussing new business models.
Have any substantial achievements come to fruition from leveraging the opportunities for collaboration and business matching facilitated by the government's support?We have seen demand from local governments in Tokyo and other regions, noting that our solutions could be used for them to issue disaster victim certificates after a disaster hits. We are currently exchanging thoughts and ideas with these governments regarding the possibility of utilizing AI for this purpose.
What kind of reaction have you seen both inside and outside your company after being awarded the Tokyo Financial Award?As an internal response, we could celebrate this award with all members of the customer service team in Tokyo and the technical team in London, who are collaborating with each other. This allowed us to create a sense of unity between the teams. As for the response outside the company, our solutions, which are mainly used in the non-life insurance industry, have attracted a wide range of interest also from other industries, such as the construction industry and local governments.
How do you plan to deliver your proposed services and expand your business beyond Tokyo in the future?Tractable offers a solution that would reduce the time required to pay insurance claims for damage to buildings caused by typhoons and other events from several months to a few days. As mentioned earlier, we have received interest from various companies, including insurance companies. We intend to continue to develop our business to help victims recover as quickly as possible during the typhoon season.
What aspects make the Tokyo Financial Award stand unique?One of the most appealing aspects of the Tokyo Financial Award is that various companies from abroad as well as from Japan participate in the program. The Tokyo Financial Award is also very appealing because it allows participants to hear about interesting business ideas from other participating companies and to network with those companies. It is different from other conventional programs in which participants just prepare presentations to receive the award.
Is there anything you would like to say to companies that are considering applying for the Tokyo Financial Award?Any companies interested in participating should definitely do so. Various companies from Japan and around the world with promising businesses gather for this award, and the opportunity to expand your company’s network through this event will be truly meaningful.
FY2021 Tokyo Financial Award - Financial Innovation Category, 3rd Place
▼Theme : Simple and easy to understand insurance procedures are needed
▼Summary of Solution : Reduces the time it takes to pay out insurance claims for building damages caused by typhoons from several months to a few days
AI solution automatically calculates the appropriate repair cost by simply taking pictures of the damaged parts of the building with a smartphone.
▼Tractable Ltd.
HP：https://tractable.ai/en
Interview Video
（Interviewee）Mr. Ziv Cohen, Chief Executive Officer, Paygilant
Why did you decide to apply to the Tokyo Financial Award?Tokyo and Japan are one of the most advanced markets that drive FinTech in Asia and globally. Since Paygilant specialize in frictionless fraud prevention for FinTech, digital banking and payments, it was very clear to us that this was one of the markets we would like to operate in. This is one of the reasons of why we applied for this program. It was important for us to take part of it and be able to accelerate our activities and bring the Paygilant technology to Tokyo.
What is the appeal of Tokyo as a financial city?Tokyo is the one of the fastest growing financial cities in the world. The developed fintech market, digital banks and payments attract companies to be part of Tokyo’s financial landscape and play a role in delivering added value to its residents. Also, the government is driving initiatives and incentivizing companies, which open new business and investments opportunities to Tokyo financial organizations and technology providers. Operating in Tokyo as a financial center, strengthened our decision to be part of it and contribute from our experience, technologies, and knowledge to the reduction of fraud in FinTech and digital banking, especially when it comes to distinguishing between fraudulence transactions and legitimate customers.
What are some unique advantages of the Tokyo Financial Award?Tokyo Financial Award is a great door opener and a gateway to the market in Japan, specifically to Tokyo. It starts with the support of the Tokyo Metropolitan government, the exposure, brand awareness and recognition. In addition, there are valuable connections, ability to engage and interact with relevant companies in Tokyo. It accelerates the process and shortens the time it normally takes to penetrate a new market and engage with all those potential companies in Tokyo. For us at Paygilant, the program and award exposed us to the Tokyo financial market, while providing the necessary information and support, to kick off our activities.
Did you receive any feedback from inside/outside of your company after receiving the Tokyo Financial Award?We received lots of positive feedback. After winning the Tokyo Financial Award, companies in Tokyo, in Asia and other regions contacted us, which helped our company grow. The collaboration with the Tokyo Metropolitan and other entities after winning the award was very fruitful and beneficial as well.
How do you plan to expand your proposed services and business in Tokyo?Paygilant is very active in Asia, being one of the fastest growing markets in FinTech. We work with virtual/Neo banks, eWallets, payments and other FinTech companies. We plan to expand that in Tokyo and have taken the required steps, to ensure that financial organizations in Tokyo and Japan, will be able to benefit greatly from Paygilant’s products.
Can you share a message to companies considering applying to the Tokyo Financial Award?My message would be: “Go on, do it. Apply for this program”. This is an excellent accelerator. The program is of great benefit to the company which will contribute immensely to the execution and penetration plans. It will also contribute to brand awareness and open-up new business opportunities. I am a very big supporter, and I encourage all of you to go and participate in this program.
FY2020 Tokyo Financial Award - Financial Innovation Category, 1st Place
▼Theme：(BtoB) Want to further accelerate digital transformation in the financial industry
▼Summary of Solution：Paygilant is a revolutionary frictionless fraud prevention for fintech, designed to eliminates the trade-off between fraud prevention, frictionless user experience, and user privacy.
▼Paygilant
HP：https://paygilant.com/
Interview Video
（Interviewee）Mr. Maurizio Raffone, Chief Financial Officer, Credify Pte. Ltd.
Why did you decide to apply to the Tokyo Financial Award?We applied to the Tokyo Financial Award because we liked the structure of the award. What I mean by that is the fact that Award focuses on problems and challenges that Tokyo residents face in real life, regarding financial services. It was an opportunity for us to gain insights of opportunities for us to develop our technology in a way that would be suitable for Tokyo and Japan’s very large market.
What is the appeal of Tokyo as a financial city?Tokyo is undeniably an extremely important financial center globally. Not only it is a global financial center, Tokyo sits at the core of Japan’s well developed, rich market with a large population. Tokyo acts as a perfect gateway for expanding our business into a market that can offer great opportunities. Tokyo is a great city to live in as well, and a very attractive place to be in for a technology company.
What are some unique advantages of the Tokyo Financial Award?The Tokyo Financial Award’s support program was very professionally run. As a startup, we have applied to, and been successful at, several different programs, being accelerators, hackathons or other corporate programs. We could sense that the way the Tokyo Financial Award program was run was very well organized, very professional. We always knew who we could talk to, and were well supported. I cannot pinpoint one specific thing that the program does especially well, because it does pretty much everything quite well.
Did you receive any feedback from inside/outside of your company after receiving the Tokyo Financial Award?We received quite a number of positive responses from the companies we engaged with. Quite a few were surprised by our achievement, not because they did not expect us to win, but the fact that we got recognized as a foreign company trying to do business in Japan. That always is a very strong message because working as a startup that comes from overseas to Japan is challenging, and requires building trust. Having gone through the program and having won second prize, it made a lot of those conversations easier.
How do you plan to expand your proposed services and business in Tokyo?Our current strategy is to establish relationships with potential partners in Japan, working primarily with one of our investors. We are tailoring our technology through our Japanese IT investor and partner, addressing the needs of Japanese clients. This takes a little bit of patience and requires long-term vision, but I would say that’s an essential part of doing business in Japan. It’s all about building relationships and establishing long-term viability.
Can you share a message to companies considering applying to the Tokyo Financial Award?First of all, if you’re planning to apply to the Tokyo Financial Award, you should do it without a doubt. It’s been very worthwhile for us, and I’m sure it will be for you. Some tips I can suggest is to really pay attention to all the “needs and challenges” that have been published for the application, and to make a very clear point on how you can address these themes. I believe that while the Award targets startup companies, it is ultimately for the people of Tokyo. So please make sure that your solution actually does help the people who live in Tokyo and try your best. Good luck!
FY2020 Tokyo Financial Award - Financial Innovation Category, 2rd Place
▼Theme：(BtoB) Want a service to promote data utilization
▼Summary of Solution：Provides “idX,” a solution based on the concept of “self-sovereign ID” and “distributed ID,” which allows users to manage their own personal information and control the scope of disclosure.
▼Credify Pte.Ltd
HP：https://www.credify.jp/
Interview Video
（Interviewee）Mr. Daisuke Murata, President of CrowdLoan Inc.
Why did you decide to apply to the Tokyo Financial Award?We started providing our loan matching platform service in January 2020 and were in the process of increasing the number of affiliations with financial institutions when the opportunity for the 2020 Tokyo Financial Award came up. We applied for the Award, as we realized that it was a valuable, once-in-a-year opportunity to gain recognition from a public institution, which could help us gain more financial institutions and businesses as partners. Although there are many loan comparison websites, there was no platform with recognition from a public institution, so we thought the Award would be beneficial for our company.
What is the appeal of Tokyo as a financial city?Although financial institutions are located throughout Japan, most of our business partners, such as automobile and real estate companies, are concentrated in Tokyo. The appeal of doing business in Tokyo is the opportunity to be able to engage with a wide variety of business partners and users.
What are some unique advantages of the Tokyo Financial Award?The fact that Tokyo Financial Awards accepts entries from both national and international companies is great, because it allows for a wider range of evaluation compared to other business contests. In our case, we provide lending service which exists in many foreign countries - the fact that we were able to win the Award from an international applicant pool was very valuable for us.
Did you receive any feedback from inside/outside of your company after receiving the Tokyo Financial Award?We publicized the fact that we had received the Tokyo Financial Award through our service website, which led to a greater level of trust in our platform among our end users. In addition, financial institutions and partner companies were able to see our service supporting the public interest, which increased chances of providing our services.
How do you plan to expand your proposed services and business in Tokyo?In addition to the automobile and real estate-related loans we have been offering, we would like to increase opportunities for business company partnerships, such as low-interest loans for certification/technical/business schools, orthodontics/implants that require a large fee, and infertility treatment, etc. We will continue to work on matching loans from banks using the platform so that both service providers and users can successfully utilize finance.
Can you share a message to companies considering applying to the Tokyo Financial Award?The Tokyo Financial Award is one of the limited number of awards that is offered by a public institution, that FinTech startups can apply to. As the entry pool is large and winning the award may be a challenge, I believe that receiving recognition from the Award is highly beneficial for your future business development and service provision. I encourage everyone to take up the challenge of the Award.
FY2020 Tokyo Financial Award - Financial Innovation Category, 3rd Place
▼Theme：(BtoB) Want to further accelerate digital transformation in the financial industry
▼Summary of Solution：In addition to data on the loan performance of users using the company’s services, a function has been added that uses external data to improve the screening system using proprietary AI.
▼CrowdLoan Inc.
HP：https://corp.crowdloan.jp/
Interview Video
（Interviewee）Mr. Gentaro Tominaga, CEO, Frich, Inc
Please share what prompted your company to apply for the Tokyo Financial Award.We learned on the internet that an InsurTech startup had won the Tokyo Financial Award in the previous fiscal year, which directly inspired us to apply for the Tokyo Financial Award. As we are also a startup offering innovative services in the field of InsurTech, Frich has been very interested in the Tokyo Financial Award for some time. The Tokyo Financial Award promotes the development of Tokyo as a financial city. At the same time, it provides great opportunities to help startups grow their business and significantly enhance their corporate brands, which motivated us to apply for the Tokyo Financial Award.
What do you think makes Tokyo a successful financial hub?We believe the financial industry recognizes Tokyo as one of its global headquarters. One of the major appeals of Tokyo is that it provides a business environment in which financial institutions and investors are closely packed together. For example, in Jimbocho where our head office is located, there are both major insurance companies and smaller insurance agencies all within walking distance of each other. Despite the new status quo of working remotely due to the pandemic, this is a great advantage for the financial industry - and especially the insurance industry - as it enables us to communicate face to face.
Have any substantial achievements come to fruition from leveraging the opportunities for collaboration and business matching facilitated by the government's support?Due to the great response online, we have received inquiries from numerous business companies and investors through the internet. Many of these inquiries have led to consideration of specific collaborations and investment projects.
What kind of reaction have you seen both inside and outside your company after being awarded the Tokyo Financial Award?Receiving the Tokyo Financial Award was truly a major turning point for us. Internally, everyone got very excited about the Edo Kiriko trophy, and it became a great catalyst to solidify our confidence and take pride in the services we provide.
Externally, we have received many positive responses and have managed to attract a great deal of attention - even some financing from a number of investors and business partners.
The Tokyo Financial Award has without a doubt elevated the trust in our services and has helped us grow our business to a completely different level.
How do you plan to deliver your proposed services and expand your business beyond Tokyo in the future?We proposed a service of creating medical coverage for pets that is specialized for certain breeds and medical conditions. However, we came to understand that social infrastructure for pet owners has not kept pace at all with the increase in the number of pets being kept. In the pet industry, which has many serious issues in addition to medical care, we intend to develop and explore a wide range of solutions for the issues related to pets and pet owners, with financial services at the core of those solutions.
What aspects make the Tokyo Financial Award stand unique?On top of everything mentioned above about Tokyo being a fantastic financial hub, the huge merits for startups like ours is that we can dare to shed a light on innovative services that are yet to exist, tie those services into Tokyo’s financial ecosystem and even have word about our services spread so that it gains recognition and trust.
Is there anything you would like to say to companies that are considering applying for the Tokyo Financial Award?There couldn’t be a better opportunity than the Tokyo Financial Award to gain recognition for your innovative services and ideas within the financial industry, and to acquire a tremendous amount of support. We strongly encourage any business seeking to grow based in Tokyo to apply.
FY2019 Tokyo Financial Award - Financial Innovation Category, 1st Place
▼Theme : Want a service that allows insurance sharing
▼Summary of Solution : Providing pet insurance services for a limited number of breeds of dogs through SNS community groups.
▼Frich, Inc
HP：https://frich.co.jp/
Interview Video
